September 26, 2009

I discovered a new way to upset a 13 year old guy... Take him into a dance store while a group of 14 to 15 year old girls get fitted for pointe shoes. To increase his torment, make sure it is a store that recently received all their new fall stock. Not the place to be if you don't like pink and frilly things.

The action was a little over the top with teenage girls flitting here and there looking for a spot at the barre. Legs flying up in different ballet positions, so they could check out the fit of the shoes. You had to be careful where you walked so you didn't get hit by flying feet or run into a racks filled with leotards, sweaters and leg warmers while dodging the dancing bodies.

It took almost an hour later, but finally we were able to walk out with a couple of lined leotards and a new pair of ballet slippers. I was last out of the door and when I caught up with my kids, my son was grousing under his breath and my daughter agreeing with him. When she saw me and said, "Mom, there was too much pink in there. It was going crazy!"

I did make it up to them this week. Their pottery class in wheel throwing started at the art school. Two hours of getting dirty, slinging clay and creating something with your hands. After two hours they bounced out of the classroom filled with stories and covered in drying clay. My taller than me son, put his arm around me and said, "Thanks for signing me up. This was great! It was so cool when I lost control of my pot and it slung off the wheel and hit the wall! Then I exploded my best pot when I put too much water on it." He bounced away from me throwing out his arms and cried, "That's how I got like this!" All I could think of was the line from the movie Madagascar, where the chimpanzees and other animals are in Grand Central Station surrounded by police and animal control. "If you have poo fling it now." Nothing like playing in the mud to put a smile on your face.

With that smile in mind, my family thoroughly enjoyed this sheet of lavosh. My daughter created a plate of antipasto and placed a few chunks of lavosh on it. My son ate it with some German Bauernschnicken (a nice cured German ham) that we were trying out. My husband and I broke out the Uniekaas cheese, olives and a glass of red wine to enjoy our lavosh. There was even enough left over for the kids to enjoy as a late snack.

1. Put the dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir together. In medium bowl pour in the liquid ingredients and mix together. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and thoroughly blend.

2. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and sprinkle sweet rice flour or arrowroot starch on the paper. Place the lavosh dough in the center of the parchment paper and sprinkle with sweet rice or arrowroot starch. Dipping your fingers into the flour pat the dough out with your fingers until it is 1/16 in/1.5 mm thick or you can sprinkle the dough with starch and then place a sheet of parchment paper on top. Roll out the dough until it is 1/16 in/1.15 mm thick and rectangular in shape.

3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F/204 degrees C. Allow the lavosh dough to rest 15 to 20 minutes before spreading the top with olive oil and sprinkling with seeds or coarse salt. Bake for 7 to 14 minutes, depending on how thin you were able to get your dough. Cool completely on a rack before serving.